40-Love —

FCC to Comcast: carry Tennis Channel, and pay up!

Network will take its place alongside ESPN, NBC Sports Network.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled 3-2 in favor of the Tennis Channel in its legal dispute with Comcast, paving the way for the channel to be made available to many more American homes than it is at present.

The three Democratic-appointed commissioners ruled in favor of the network, with their Republican-appointed counterparts dissenting. This is the first time that the FCC has found a cable operator to be in violation of the 1993 federal anti-discrimination program carriage rules.

Thirty-four million homes can get the Tennis Channel, and with the new ruling, about 18 million more will be able to get it too. However, the channel has struggled to break through—during the first week of the French Open in May, the channel only drew about 300,000 viewers.

Comcast had put the channel on a separate sports tier package nationwide, which was only available to subscribers who paid for additional sports programming. Tennis Channel executives haven’t taken too kindly to that relegation, previously calling it the “kiss of death,” which led to the channel filing legal action in 2010.

Tennis Channel argued that because Comcast already includes its own Golf Channel (in which it owns a minority stake) and NBC Sports Network on its main cable package, that it was discriminating against the independent channel. Comcast, however, also owns a minority stake in Universal Sports Network, which is not available on most subscriber packages.

An Administrative Law Judge had ruled against Comcast, which appealed the decision to the FCC—and that appeal was denied on Tuesday. The previous ruling stands, which stipulates that Comcast must include the Tennis Channel in its main cable package, and pay a fine of $375,000 within 45 days.

Tennis Channel, which has been around for nearly 10 years, has struggled to gain a broad audience. But it has seen its viewership grow in recent years, particularly during this year’s French Open tournament in May.

In 2010, the New York Timesreported that Tennis Channel benefited particularly from Grand Slam tournaments, when many cable networks add it as a free add-on, and as a result has had corresponding increasingly higher-tier ad revenue.

“According to Mendelsohn Media Research, a unit of Monroe Mendelsohn Research, the average Tennis Channel viewer’s household income is $233,000, the highest of any network; the average home value is $541,000, second to Bloomberg Television,” the paper wrote.

UPDATE: In a blog post, Comcast expressed its disagreement with the FCC ruling. Kyle McSlarrow, Comcast's president wrote: "The majority’s ruling misapplies the statutory standards for discrimination and competitive harm, ignores evidence demonstrating that Comcast’s business decision with respect to Tennis Channel was based on unbiased cost-benefit analyses (and not discrimination), violates the statute of limitations governing Tennis Channel’s complaint, and tramples on Comcast’s First Amendment rights."